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This web resource is for teachers of high beginning and intermediate writing courses and intermediate ESL learners. The resource provides 8 units that 1) teach about paragraph structure and paragraph elements: topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence 2) introduce transition words and coherence in a paragraph 3) provide the opportunity to learn about and practice basic writing skills such as making an outline and staying on topic. Clear explanations are supported by examples; therefore, teacher can use this resource for class preparation, and ESL learners can use it as additional material to learn about paragraph writing. Practice activities provided by the website are not interactive; however, most of the assessment tasks have answer keys. In addition, each unit provides lesson in a PDF format that can be used by a teacher as a handout. -- From Lena Shvidko For ESL K-12 learners, but would be useful for adults as well. Focuses on the paragraph, rather than the essay, so makes a good beginning set of lessons.

Grammar-Quizzes contrasts points of grammar and provides examples, explanations, practices and interactive quizzes for adjectives, verbs, prepositions, clauses, phrases, expressions and much more!

A place for students to connect with each other and practice language--free! One of the finest uses of social networking I can imagine. This is a site similar to Babbel which I used to brush up my Spanish before it became for pay. Let's hope this stays free!

You can set up an audio discussion board for your students. Very teacher- and student-friendly site. Great for practicing conversation online. (Formerly Chinswing.) See Russell Stannard's training video at http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/voxopop/index.html Stannard has also set up a teacher's discussion board for this tool: http://www.voxopop.com/group/8620c8e6-7839-4f55-842e-fce721d9eea2

Very short videos--36 sec--may be good for low level students to practice initial speaking/listening. Also has apps for various smart phones. Might be good for a quite pronunciation quiz, for example. The teacher can then send back a short video message with corrections, modeling, etc.

A video on how to use Keek to make and share short video messages. Although limited to only 36 secs, this might be a good application for beginning learners, or for a quick pronunciation quiz (you will see who is taking that quiz!) You can also embed a finished recording in your blog or wiki, as well as sending it by email. A good way to have students create a short, practiced conversation. Also has smartphone apps for mobile recordings, RSS feed to follow, and links to Facebook and Twitter.

"Learn English online with the help of this free website from the British Council with games, stories, listening activities and grammar exercises. You can search for your favourites, or have a look at the site map to find out where everything is. This is a BETA site and you will find lots of new listening activities and video content in Listen & Watch. We also have a new Grammar section and new IELTS exam practice materials. Click here to return to the 'old' LearnEnglish website. Double-click any word to see a dictionary definition. You can contact us if you have a question or want to report any problems. Become a member and you can add comments to the site and ask questions to get help with your English." This site has thematic/situationally based videos.

"ANVILL (A National Virtual Language Lab) is a speech-based toolbox for language teachers. Like the language lab console of old, it's focused on the practice of oral/aural language, but at its core are very modern web-based audio and video tools from duber dot com and the University of Oregon: Voiceboards, LiveChat, and Quizzes and Surveys. Our newest tool, TCast, allows teachers to record and place audio or video files anywhere in a lesson--in 3 easy steps. Each of these tools really opens up the scope and sequence of lessons centered around spoken language tasks." Jeff Magoto has done a great presentation on how to use ANVILL, which is a wonderful, free, A/V tool available now internationally.

This is an amazing resource for teaching high school/adult ed. It is video-based and free--individual students can sign in, or a teacher can register a whole class and keep records of their activities. There is an excellent explanatory video for teachers also. Lots of listening/speaking/reading practice.

"Many people don't realize that The New York Times can be quite accessible for English Language Learners. Due to its focus on current events and news, using The Times to learn vocabulary and practice reading can be much more inviting and rewarding than a textbook. And NYTimes.com has some extra tools and features that are particularly useful for language learning. Here are 10 ideas for using The Times to teach and learn the English language." Includes lookup dictionary, multimedia archive, K/W/L Chart, short activities, culture experiences, lesson plans, this day in history, etc.

Conversation English is an iPhone/iTunes app where people can view a short video of a dialogue and do exercises. If your students are crazy about their smart phones, this would be a good way to get them to practice.

Put in lists of words and Website creates sound files for them. You can also put in a description or translation of your words to practice them. Also creates tests on them. Uses several major languages.

"Plays on most smart phones. Video mails up to 10 minutes. Video stored up to 365 days. No account or downloads." This would e fun for students to use to practice speaking and presentations. Especially good because there is no sign-in. See Russell Stannard's training video at

The Virtual Schoolhouse is a compendium of project-based learning practices from across the country. We invite you to explore the site and discover both the principles behind project-based learning, as well as the work of teachers and students who are making project-based learning happen in the classroom.

This is a great set of podcast questions by students to be used as the basis of a cross-cultural exchange. Nice examples to get your students going. These examples are from 16-17-yr-olds. Students get some writing practice, too, by inputting the questions they read aloud.

If you are a fan of grammar, this site is for you. Hundreds of online lessons for further practice.

An online speed reading training tool, this site really helps you improve reading speed. Contains a very limited library for practice, but you can also highlight text in a browser and open the Eyercize tool from an icon on your browser toolbar. Should be quite useful. R. Stannard has a training video on how to use this tool /eyer/index.html>